PAKISTAN
Energy shortages are hobbling the economy and contributing to unrest. But the country has options.Pakistan is in the midst of one of the worst energy crises in its history. This is both slowing the pace of economic activity and causing public unrest with prolonged outages of electricity and gas. Capacity utilization in some key industries has fallen to nearly 50 percent. Worst affected is the fertilizer industry, which faces interruptions to its gas supply and forced closures. Pakistan has the capacity to produce more than one million tons in exportable surplus urea, yet in 2011-12 it imported more than 1.1 million tons. This eroded the country’s foreign exchange reserves and effectively entailed the payment of millions of dollars in subsidies, being the difference between the cost of locally produced and imported urea. Pakistan urgently needs to make some strategic decisions and change the national energy mix.
Immediately after assuming power, the government of Nawaz Sharif came up with two policy decisions: pay half a trillion rupees (just under $5 billion) to energy companies and announce a new power policy. Both steps are aimed at resolving problems plaguing the companies belonging to the energy chain and bringing change to Pakistan’s energy mix to optimize the average cost of electricity generation.
Pakistan’s government paid Rs260 billion in cash to independent power plants (IPPs) to clear outstanding debt. It also issued bonds to pay off liabilities pertaining to state-owned companies such as exploration and production firms and oil and gas marketing entities. After clearing the debt of the IPPs, it was expected that they would be able to generate 1,700MW in additional electricity, attenuating the shortfall that currently exceeds 6,000MW. The situation is likely to improve over time.
According to the available data, at present installed power generation capacity in Pakistan is estimated to about 22,500MW (excluding the Karachi Energy Supply Company, more on which below), but actual power generation hovers around 15,000MW, partly because of outdated and inefficient power plants and partly because of a cash crunch, which often does not permit power plants to operate at optimum capacity because of the inability to buy the required furnace oil. This could be best understood when one looks at the available data on power plants operating in the public sector, which have an installed capacity of over 4,800MW but actual generation hovering around 1,200MW.
At present, the bulk of electricity supply comes from hydroelectric plants (6,500MW) and IPPs (6,500MW). The output of the hydro plants is dependent on water availability in the dams, and can fall to as low as 2,500MW when water levels drop drastically. And as we have seen, IPP output is limited by money problems.
Pakistan’s woes have been exacerbated by its excessive reliance on thermal power plants, mainly using furnace oil. Two factors contributed to the emergence of this situation: a change in lenders from the public to private sector, and Pakistan’s failure to complete a hydroelectric project in recent decades. The last mega dam, Tarbella, was completed in the mid seventies and no other dam has been constructed since. After the signing of the Indus Water Treaty with India, Pakistan was required to complete construction of one mega-size hydroelectricity plant per decade to ensure year-round availability of low cost electricity and irrigation water.
Pakistan’s 6,500MW hydro capacity, the bulk is contributed by three projects: Mangla, Tarbella and Ghazi Brotha. There are nearly two dozen IPPs, but the major players are Hub Power Company, Kot Addu Power Company and Uch Power Plant. Pakistan also has three nuclear power plants, two in Punjab and one in Karachian, with aggregate capacity of over 800MW. However, the Karachi plant is at the end of its effective life and its capacity cannot be termed “dependable.”
Unlike the rest of Pakistan, Karachi gets its electricity from a compact utility, Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), which handles generation, transmission and distribution. The bulk of its generation comes from the Bin Qasim Power Plant, which has an installed capacity of 1,260MW. Another 500MW
comes from smaller units. Since privatization, KESC has added another 500WM capacity at Bin Qasim but its output has remained erratic because of the inconsistent supply of gas.
In Pakistan the crisis in the power sector has affected the whole society for many years. Long power cuts and ever increasing electricity bills have made the lives of ordinary people hell. One of the main reasons for all this was the privatisation of the power generating sector many years ago.
It was then that independent power producers were given permission to produce power and sell it at their desired rates. Millions of dollars changed hands in these deals with the incumbent government officers and ministers who became much wealthier. The hunger for more profits without investing a penny in infrastructure has led this whole basic sector in to a disaster.
A few years ago the power distribution company in Karachi (KESC) was also privatised, after which this, the largest city, formerly known as the “City of Lights”, turned into a city of darkness.
Currently there are eight power distribution companies operating in Pakistan. Of these, five companies, IESCO, LESCO, GEPCO, FESCO and MEPCO, are based in the Punjab. Three other companies, HESCO, PESCO and QESCO, are based in Sindh, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa and Baluchistan respectively.
This government has failed to solve any of the problems inherited from the previous regimes. Inflation, unemployment, terrorism and power shortages are on the rise. Their solution to the economic problems, with the so-called “useful” suggestions of the IMF, the PML-N government is actually imposing brutal economic measures on the working class. This criminal act of the government has provoked unrest among the workers and a state of depression among many workers about the fate of their jobs.
Already despite the cheap production of electricity, high rates are being charged on the citizens. The role of the trade union leaders, as always, is disappointing. They are in a state of despair. The Hydro union has been the traditional organisation of the workers inside WAPDA for many decades. From this platform the workers in the past fought against the fundamentalists and the Marshal Law dictators. But today its leaders have failed to take any radical step against the government’s anti labour policies. However, the pressure of the workers on their leadership is now mounting rapidly. In this dismal situation, the only way forward for the workers is to put themselves at the forefront to counter this imperialist onslaught which is being carried out with the consent of their local puppets.
GAS
Textile industry contributes more than 60 per cent to the countrys total exports but the electricity and gas loadshedding are continuing to hit this crucial sector hard at this critical time, when there is not much competition in the international market.
The Problems of Mine and Quarry Workers
Putting labour in the forefront of development is a prerequisite for any positive social change. But labour is the most neglected and deprived section in our country and does not enjoy equity and equal rights. The mine and quarry workers are one of this class. They are not only seeking their bread and butter from digging up the mountains but they are building up the nation too. The crushed rock which is made from these mountains is used as building material. These workers are generating millions of rupees of revenue for the Government.
The working conditions of mine and quarry workers are pathetically unsafe and poor which leads to the routine occurrence of accidents. They workers labour without any safety measures. Just a rope is the tool for them to climb up the mountains. They are well aware of the possibility of death or injury. Workers between the age of 10 to 40 rush to this valley of death as they do not have alternative job opportunities.
They are segregated and socially discriminated against. They have no civil liberties and are treated as third rate citizens. When they raise their voice against oppression and injustice they are put in jail. They are subjected to police brutality and suffer trials and tribulations. They are subjected to difficulties,
frustrations and despair. In Martin Luther’s words they are ‘battered by the storms of persecution’. They do not enjoy any human respect and fraternity. Although these workers are not in millions but their miseries are incredibly boundless. They are deprived of the payment of minimum wages, old age benefits, life insurance, marriage and death grants, safety kits and pension facilities. The government should take immediate measures to register all mines and quarry workers while providing them a comprehensive package of social protection.
1. They should all be registered in A and B schedule.
2. They should all be given a comprehensive package of social protection, safety measures, minimum wages, old age benefits, life insurance, marriage and death grants and pension facilities to all registered and unregistered workers.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
According to government statistics the labour force in Pakistan was estimated at 39.4 million of which the industrial labour force constituted 6,005,487, agriculture represented 17,518,204 and service 10,586,309.
According to another government source 44 percent of labour belongs to the agriculture sector and 56 percent form the service and industrial sectors of which 20 percent is formal sector and 36 percent informal.
The above data is not reliable but is what is available.
No data about occupational health and safety (OHS) are available in Pakistan because the majority of accidents are not reported to the Labour Department. Diseases and accidents in the work place are an appalling tragedy. The incidence of occupational diseases and injuries is very high in Pakistan because thousands of workers are routinely exposed to hazardous chemicals.
It is well known that healthy workers are most productive. The introduction of hazardous technologies in industry and agriculture have resulted in high accident rates, occupational diseases, and unhealthy working environments. Most workers are illiterate and do not know what protective measures should be adopted for their jobs. This results in an increasing toll of work related accidents and diseases.
Pakistan has poor occupational safety and health legislation and infrastructure to promote it.
Large numbers of illiterate workers are employed informally in unregulated sectors like construction, agriculture, mining, especially in small-size enterprises.
Women and children are especially vulnerable as they usually work informally, with no access to basic occupational health and safety protection.
Four major working sectors in Pakistan are identified as agriculture, formal sector, informal sector and service sector.
The overall accident rate is similar to Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). An average 70 workers die per year due to electric shocks.
In the transport sector in Punjab province alone in 2013, 6,553 people died in road accidents.
Working conditions are similar in other hazardous industries like textile, tanning, chemicals, paper, sugar, electrical, and electronic. The workers suffer more in those industries and face diseases like lung cancer, skin and eye allergies, deafness, headaches and also the rate of accidents is higher. In addition the tanneries waste liquid contaminates underground water making it danger for workers’ and residents’ health.
Construction
The largely informal construction sector provides employment to large numbers of workers who are specially vulnerable to occupational health and safety risk as most of them are illiterate. These workers are not even provided with the protection that is available to industrial workers, because most labour laws do not apply to this sector, and the rate of accidents, diseases and injuries is consequently higher.
Brick kiln workers are scattered across all four provinces of Pakistan. Their working conditions are worse than most others as it is either joint family labour or, as in some areas, bonded labour.
Mining
Pakistan’s rich source of non-metallic minerals including coal and gemstones are mined by hundred of small- and medium-size mining groups. Working conditions of mine workers, particularly coal mines, are very poor. The severe lack of safety measures in these mines cause widespread deaths every year. Government agencies have not been able to stop accidents because of very poor physical and technical standards observed by small and medium mines. Added to which the equipment is considered obsolete by modern standards.
Industrial sector (formal and informal)
A survey based in Lahore found industry lacks basic hygiene facilities, has inadequate exhaust filters, fire prevention and medical facilities (even first aid), emergency transport, waste disposal services, and hazard warning signs. New chemicals have increased the ratio of accidents.
Families of workers registered 1,855 cases against employers but courts are usually sympathetic towards employers, and only award compensation to workers who prove an accident is due to negligence by employers. This is not easy for workers to prove.
Children and OHS issues
Children work in carpet making, garages, welding, shoeshine, garbage collecting, fresh flower sales, and the chemical sector. Most children working in garages use petrol as the solvent to clean auto parts. This poses numerous hazards to their health, specially because petrol is highly inflammable.
Welding is often carried out near their work stations, and results in burns to children. Inhalation and skin absorption of petrol fumes pose multiple health hazards such as depression, low red cell counts, de-fatting of skin and even cancer due to benzene in the petrol. Breathing petrol fumes can also be addictive.
Agriculture
Companies promote the use of pesticides and artificial fertiliser to increase agricultural profits. Every month they introduce new chemicals and tell farm workers that it is comparatively unharmful to humans and environment.
Pesticides also harm soil and plants. In south Punjab and Sindh Provinces during the cotton-picking season, many women reported a variety of diseases; some even died due to pesticide poisoning. This claim is supported by at least one non-governmental organisation.
Pesticides also weaken the immune system making workers more liable to diseases like cancer, gastrointestinal infection, and tuberculosis. Despite advances in medicine during the last two decades, the general health of farm workers has worsened.
Fire
In Gujrat recently a factory producing electric fans caught fire and six workers were seriously burned. Every day in newspapers we read about fire accidents in different industries causing death and injuries due to fire, and smoke inhalation – often where workers are locked in factories for ‘security reasons’.
We found that the fire extinguishers provided in most factories were out-dated, and workers were unaware of OHS procedures. They were not even trained to correctly use the existing obsolete fire extinguishers. Proper techniques in fire fighting are crucial. Exploding boilers (105 were registered) killed hundred of workers in the paper industry.
Women
Unemployment, illiteracy, poverty, abuse of human rights, exploitation, child labour, declining living standards and other social issues seem to threaten women especially. Women are not aware about OHS and labour laws, even graduates and professionals. A study by a university said 64 percent of women are unaware of the basic and constitutional law.
We must demand the government establishes Health and Safety Council be set up at national, provincial and plant levels to ensure that lives and health of workers are protected.
Laws and Regulations on OHS
The main law governing OHS is the Factories Act 1934 Chapter 3. The Hazardous Occupation Rules of 1978 regulate certain occupations as hazardous, and contain special provisions to regulate the working conditions in those occupations. Each province has also enacted its own Rules within the mandate of the Factories Act.
In addition there are other laws dealing with OHS:
The Mines Act 1923
Social Security Ordinance 1965
Workmen’s Compensation Act 1923
Shop and Establishment Ordinance 1969
Dock Labourer Act 1934
The health and safety measures prescribed in most of the above laws have not kept pace with the rapidly changing times. Many of the sectors with grave OHS hazards (and most workers anyway) are not covered by these laws. They contain very few technical standards. Furthermore the occupational exposure limits (OELs) now common all over the world are still missing from Pakistan’s laws. These laws must be thoroughly revised and updated.
Suggestions
Health and Safety council at plant, provincial and national levels;
Training and education on OSH specially for trade union leaders and worker activists;
Rights to information for the safe use of machinery and chemicals (in the appropriate language);
At least two percent of income from every industry should be spent to provide OSH protection;
Warning signs in local language;
Categories of sign (warning, danger etc.) have been adopted in OSH laws of some countries. In Pakistan no such signs have been recommended under Health and Safety laws;
Noise standards – this simple step may go a long way in reducing the toll of accidents and diseases in the work place;
Only 1.1 million workers out of total 39 million are covered by labour laws – all 39 million should be protected.
Child Labour
It is equally frustrating that child labour, considered to be one of the core issues of Pakistan, is being neglected by the government.
Hence, the rate of child labour has perked up to a large amount.According to the national child labor survey, approximately 4.3 million children below 14 years are working as a labour in Pakistan. This includes both boys and girls — boys form 73 pc and the girls 27 pc of the child labour.
This scenario depicts how moderate Pakistani parents are letting their children to work as labourers in order to earn money and survive in this world.As a result, the majority of children works overtime for Rs 50 to Rs100, which seems a matter of grave concern. What is required is that the government must take a step to solve this issue.
Bonded Labour
Bonded labour, also known as debt bondage, is probably one of the least known forms of slavery today but responsible for enslaving millions of people around the world. A labourer becomes bonded when his or her labour is demanded in repayment for a loan. This advance is known as `peshgi’ in Pakistan. The person is then tricked or trapped into working for very little or no pay, often for seven days a week. The value of their work is invariably greater than the original sum borrowed.
According to the Human Rights Report, there are more than three to nine million people working as bonded labour in Sindh and Punjab. They claim that these people work for land lords and brick kiln owners because of debt.
Additionally, bonded labourers are routinely threatened and subjected to all kinds of physical abuse by employers. Threats and violence, both by the employer and the local police are used to coerce and discourage the bonded labourer from attempting legal redress or physical escape.
Bonded labourers suffer a range of violations of internationally recognised human rights including:
the right not to be held in slavery or servitude
the right not to be imprisoned merely on the ground of inability to fulfill a contractual obligation
the right not to be arbitrarily arrested
the right to liberty of movement
the right to freedom of association, including the right to form and join trade unions.
Children Education
APFUTU run 5 school for workers children with the support of some foreign settled friends, 233 children are getting free education, free food, free school uniform, free stationery and free school books. These children were involved in child labour & Domestic workers. Presently APFUTU also looking some organizations / donors who provide some financial support to keep this project continue for long terms. Other wise in April, 2014 these 5 school will be close after completing their 4 year due to lack of funds, if any organization provide 200 euro per month per school the remaining amount will be contributed by APFUTU, then these school will be continue their function. If these school will be closed then we afraid that these children will go back and again involve in child labour etc.
Trade Union Rights in Pakistan
Due to disabling legislation and repressive practices, unionization is on decline and union activities, particularly collective bargaining, have become increasingly difficult. At present, according to an estimate, less than five per cent of the workers in the formal sector are unionized. Officially the formal sector accounts for only 30 per cent of the employment outside agriculture.
Although Pakistan’s Industrial Relations laws provides for the right of industrial workers to form trade unions but union organizers are subject to a variety restrictions that hinder their activities and effectiveness. Many workers enjoy limited trade union rights, and the right to strike is circumscribed by excessive restrictions. In practice, trade union rights are often violated. Several trade union activists were arrested, detained or discriminated as observed in last few years.
While the Constitution guarantees freedom of association, it is denied to workers in many sectors. One of
the laws that hinders trade union activity is the Essential Services Maintenance Act of 1952 (ESA) (which covers government services and state enterprises, such as energy production, power generation and transmission, etc) and is usually invoked to limit or ban strikes, and is also used to severely curtail collective bargaining rights. Legally required conciliation proceedings and cooling-off periods constrain the right to strike, as does the Government’s authority to ban any strike that may cause “serious hardship to the community” or prejudice the national interest.
Employers often strongly resist the unionisation of their employees, with management resorting to intimidation, dismissal and blacklisting. If an employer is opposed to the formation of a union, the procedures for union registration and the appeals process can take many years. Sometimes the employers artificially promote workers to managerial status, usually without the concomitant salary increase, so that they no longer qualify for union membership. The economic crisis has resulted in increasing numbers of businesses ignoring the law with the sometimes overt support of the authorities. This has led to reduced wages and benefits as well as weaker rights, since workers are more afraid to claim their rights in case they lose their jobs.
The strikes that do occur are, given the complications attached to organising a strike, usually illegal and short, and mostly by associations or unions in sectors where unions are not allowed to forms. They are often broken up by police and used by employers to justify dismissals. Marches and protests do occur regularly despite the repercussions.
The Factories Act of 1934 provides for inspection of enterprises, but this authority has been increasingly devolved to provincial and lower level governments with the net result that labour inspections are hardly ever performed, and that employers are able to violate key provisions of the law on wages and conditions of work with impunity.
Pakistani law is particularly hard on agricultural workers who are denied the right to form unions and are thus prevented from striking, bargaining collectively, or making any demands on their employers.
In addition, Pakistan has been hit hard by the economic crisis and unions are calling for an urgent increase in the minimum wage to cope with rising prices and harsh IMF repayment terms. Contract workers and rural workers face particularly bad working conditions and minimum access to labour rights. Poverty has continued to rise. The economic crisis has also led to a reported rise in child labour.
APFUTU protest privatisation plan
The All Pakistan federation of United Trade Unions protest against price hike, increase in petroleum prices, proposed privatization of Wapda and its Distribution Companies, Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA and other national entities.
The workers of Wapda, Railway, PWD, PTV, PTCL, irrigation department, Pakistan Post, PTDC, National Bank, ZTBL, Municipal Federation, Gas, Wasa and other trade unions affiliated with APFUTU participated in the demonstration.
The leaders of APFUTU, said that the government instead of seeking loans from international financial institutions like World Bank and IMF should go for self-reliance.
They said that at a time when people were already hit by high inflation, they warned of country-wide strike, if the government did not introduce necessary economic and social reforms to make national public utilities sustainable.
He demanded the Federal Government to hold composite dialogues on the issue with the representatives of the union and stop the process of privatisation of the profitable distribution companies.
The labour leaders condemned the killings of innocent citizens including workers by the terrorists and demanded social protection for all by raising old-age benefits.
They also demanded to bring the culprits to book who plundered Rs40 billion of Employees Old-age Benefits Institution (EOBI).
They appealed to the patriotic forces to join hands with the working class to establish an egalitarian society through concerted struggle and defeat the ethnic, parochial and religious, sectarian and terrorist forces.
APFUTU urged the government to withdraw recent increase in petroleum prices and review the labour legislation and repeal Section 27-B of the Banking Companies Ordinance and bring labour laws in conformity with ILO Conventions ratified by the government of Pakistan and review the privatisation policy of national public utilities including Railways, Wapda, PIA by raising their productivity through transparent management in the wider public interest.Political parties to include labour rights in their manifestos.
APFUTU-Pakistan
Internet:www.APFUTU.org